Professor of Modern Hebrew and Jewish Culture
About
Current research interest:
I research twentieth-century Hebrew, German, and Yiddish literature and cinema, with an emphasis on cultural exchange through translation and adaptation. My work explores German-Hebrew translation discourse and practice, showing how literary translators engaged scriptural translation models while negotiating Jewish national culture.
Book Publications:
My first book, Golem: Modern Wars and Their Monsters (NYU Press, 2016), explores the mass appeal of golem tales concerning artificial creation in the German-speaking world around World War I, as well as the ongoing association of golem figures with war technologies in American and Israeli cultures. The book was awarded the 2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Prize of the AJS and received Honorable Mention for the Salo Baron AAJR First Book Prize.
My forthcoming book, Golem, How He Came into the World (Camden House German Film Classics, 2020) is a detailed study of Paul Wegener’s 1920 film, situating it in the cultural, historical, and social contexts of post-World War I Germany.
Selected Article Publications:
“‘One Should Finally Learn How to Read This Breath’: Paul Celan and the Buber-Rosenzweig Bible,” Comparative Literature 71.4, 2019. 436-454.
“The Lost German City: Leah Goldberg’s Berlin,” Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 30, 2019. 143-168 [Hebrew].
“Translation on the Margins: Avraham Ben Yitzhak and Yoel Hoffmann.” The Journal of Jewish Identities. Volume 7:1, 2014. 109-128.
“A Poetics of Statelessness: Avraham Ben Yitzhak after World War I.” Naharaim: Journal of German Jewish Literature and Cultural History. Volume 7:1-2, 2013. 111-130.
“S. Y. Agnon’s German Consecration and the ‘Miracle’ of Hebrew Letters.” Prooftexts. Volume 33:1, 2013. 48-75.
“Reading Camera Lucida in Gaza: Ronit Matalon’s Photographic Travels.” Comparative Literature. Volume 65:2, 2013. 200-219.
Selected Courses:
Undergraduate:
“Screening Jewish Cultures” (Judaic / Mideast)
“The Jewish Graphic Novel” (Judaic / American Cultures)
"Comics and Conflict: Reframing the Middle East" (Mideast, International Studies)
“Ethnicity in Israeli Literature and Culture” (Hebrew, Judaic)
Graduate:
"The Task of the Self-Translator" (Judiac / Mideast / Germanic / Comparative Lit)
"Sacred Languages, Secular translations (Judiac / Mideast / Comparative Lit)
Research Areas(s)
- Modern Hebrew, German, and Yiddish literatures
- Film and Photography Theory
- Translation and Multilingualism studies
Affiliation(s)
Middle East Studies, Judaic Studies, Comparative Literature, Germanic Languages and Literatures
